Coindesk

A lot of attention is paid to the decentralization of the Bitcoin network.Bitcoin miners should set up shop in a number of different jurisdictions in order to prevent any kind of regulatory capture of the network, so the thinking goes. Some members of the crypto community even saw China’s 2021 crypto ban as a positive because it forced mining operations — up until then clustered in the Middle Kingdom — to spread out to various other continents.That discourse isn’t as prevalent when it comes to Proof-of-Stake networks like Ethereum and Solana, but staking firm SenseiNode aims to make such blockchains as resilient as possible by spinning up validator infrastructure in Latin America.“When we started, 99% of nodes were located in...

This year's rapid surge in U.S. states' interest to put public money into cryptocurrencies before the federal government can establish a strategic reserve of digital assets has encountered mixed results after five such efforts flamed out, though Utah remains a single vote away from the finish line and Texas reportedly advanced a bill to its state Senate.Pennsylvania, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota and North Dakota have fallen short of the mark in legislative efforts to put public money into crypto. Others — most notably Utah — have made significant progress toward passing bills that could tie their financial health to the digital assets markets, and the ground is shifting by the hour.The U.S. Congress and President Donald Trump have made noise...

BitMEX, the cryptocurrency exchange and derivatives trading platform co-founded in 2014 by Arthur Hayes, is looking for a buyer, according to two people with knowledge of the plans.The storied exchange, which arguably made perpetual futures the most popular product among leverage-hungry crypto traders, appointed boutique investment bank Broadhaven Capital Partners late last year to assist with the sales process, the people said.There has been some M&A interest around the crypto derivatives space of late. For instance, major exchanges Kraken and Coinbase are said to be vying for ownership of the leading crypto options exchange Deribit. Meanwhile, FalconX also bought Arbelos Markets earlier this year to expand its derivatives business. Back in 2020, BitMEX was alleged to have failed to implement...

What if artificial intelligence (AI) agents could hire other AI agents to help them with their work?That’s essentially the idea behind Mech Marketplace, a decentralized platform from crypto-AI firm Olas that enables easy collaboration between various AI agents on an autonomous basis.“We’re not at a point where AI agents can do everything,” David Minarsch, a founding member of Olas, said in an interview. “In order to architect the systems, it's better if you separate concerns. So you let different agents specialize in different things, and that specialization gives rise to the need for agents to trade with each other.”For example, if you’re using an AI agent to make money from prediction markets, the agent would typically know how to interact...

Crypto crime was rife in 2024 despite it being a landmark year for institutional adoption. A report by blockchain security firm Chainalysis reveals that $40 billion was received by illicit addresses.The $40 billion is an estimate that will rise throughout 2025 as more details around historical crimes emerge. The illicit crypto in question can be attributed to scams, malware, fraud or dark net activities.2023's figure ended at $46.1 billion, although Chainalysis expects 2024's total to exceed that when all crime is accounted for with an estimated total of $51.3 billion. The total also excludes revenue from non-crypto native crime such as drug trafficking or money laundering, where crypto is used as a means of payment, the report added.The approval of...